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The Rediscovery of Hinduism

Last few months
kept me busy – professional and personal changes were too many to blog. Yet,
from an intellectual point of view this was a remarkably fruitful period.

Seven months
back, I was hardly conversant with the Indian history and culture. I am not
sure what started it – but I came across this blog www.sandeepweb.com which stimulated my
interest to learn more about the greatness of Indian culture. From that, I
moved on from articles to articles until that unveiling was as exhilarating as it
was painful.

Several articles
from various authors challenged the widely accepted notions of Indian history
and sought to expose the political designs behind maligning Hinduism.

Below
mentioned are few notions:

Muslim kings were similar to
earlier Hindu kings. They mingled with local populace and lived in harmony
till Britishers came and used the “Divide and Rule” policy – the root
cause of communalism in India today.

Muslim armies easily subdued
Indian kings who offered little resistance. In fact, apart from Maurya and
Gupta empires in BC era, we have no noteworthy Hindu kings till Mehmood of
Ghaznavi.

Mehmood of Ghaznavi’s
destruction of Hindu temples was purely for economic purpose and had no
religious motive.

The destruction of temples
should not be exaggerated as the earlier Hindu kings destroyed many
Buddhist and Jain shrines too. And the number of temples destroyed were
too less and compensated with allowances that later kings gave for many
Hindu temples.

Muslim kings mixed with
native people and earned their goodwill. They in fact recruited many Hindu
officers. Except for a bunch of misguided bigots most Muslim rulers were
enlightened.

Muslim kings never tried to
forcefully convert people. Proof? 80% of Indian population remains Hindu.
If these kings who ruled for about 600 years were fanatical about
religion, Hindus would have been a minority. Islam was spread by peace in
India.

The Hindu-Muslim battles
throughout medieval ages have no religious aspect. Each time they were
fighting for purely political causes. Marathas were like terrorists who weakened
a central government of Mughal Empire. Evidence? Many times Muslim kings
sided with Hindu kings against another Muslim kingdom and vice-versa.

Followers of every religion
exhibited intolerance at various times. So Muslim atrocities should not be
characterized by its religion. Jehad is a concept by misguided followers
of Islam.

India was never a country. It
was a collection of many nations. There is no common cultural unity in
India. Evidence: So many cultures/languages exist in India even today.

In fact, the so-called
natives who call themselves Hindus are themselves foreigners. Aryans as
they were called came from Central Asia, arrived to a predominantly
Dravidian populated India and drove the native people to South. While
Aryans classified themselves as Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vysyas there
discriminated against the local population by classifying them as Sudras.
So when the so-called Hindus themselves were the first invaders, they must
not complain when they received similar treatment from Islamized armies
and British in later times.

Buddhism was a revolt against
tyrannical Brahmanism whose ritualism and discrimination against Shudras
reached a new high.

Thinking
on these issues and reading related materials gave me a new perspective on
Hinduism and life itself.

I intend
to cover these topics in days to come. All the while I am thankful to various
scholars who have written on these subjects and helped me form a perspective.

I am
particularly grateful to Koenraad
Elst an unaffiliated Belgian scholar who understands Hinduism better than
99% of Hindus themselves. “Regarding religion, he combines human sympathy with
substantive skepticism”. Without muddling much into the chest-thumping kind of
fanatic Hinduism, he speaks coolly with composure in a truly secular tone (he
himself is an atheistic) – in a truly Sanatana Dharmic
tone.

I cannot
thank him enough - for despite being a foreigner he has worked hard to
understand the dynamics of Indian politics today and his writings will help
Hindus of future generation overcome the encompassing criticism of their
religion.

Rajiv Malhotra (an Indian-American public intellectual – also
founder of Infinity Foundation
committed to foster a better global understanding of Indian civilization) has
made some excellent points in his various articles that challenge the Eurocentricism
in Academia and seek to understand the ongoing conspiracy to denigrate Hinduism
and help in proselytizing Indian masses. His books Breaking India and Being Different are masterpieces in
understanding Hinduism and the challenges it faces today.

Also the
pioneers of these heroic effort – Shri Sita Ram Goel and Shri Ram Swarup – founders
of Voice of India whose books on Indian
History and Culture are MUST-READ
for any curious and passionate Indian. Though their earthy career is over, they
live in the books which will guide the next-generation Hindus.

Look
forward to write more on these topics in future.

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